Agnes Chan -- Sougen no Kagayaki (草原の輝き）

"Sougen no Kagayaki"is translated as "Splendor in the Grass", and for all those kayo kyoku fans who are also old movie fans (like me), yep, the song title was indeed from Elia Kazan's 1961 film starring Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood. However, I don't think lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）made any reference to it when she wrote this song up. The composer was Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）, the same person who had invited and introduced Agnes Chan to Japan just a few years previously.

Agnes Chan once again brings a familiar memory through this song with her high voice and Hirao's light melody. A popular song when it was released in July 1973, it got as high as No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and ended up as the 17th-ranked song for the year. Chan's 3rd single also earned her a Newcomer's Award at the Japan Record Awards.

She just looks so cute in this video. A bit of foodie trivia about Agnes. When she first arrived in Japan, she wasn't able to speak the language so her representing office always gave her a bowl of  chuuka-don (中華丼）....which is basically chop suey on rice, something that is basically a Japanese invention....as her meal, simply because the first two kanji stood for "Chinese". She quickly got sick of the stuff to the the extent that even to this day, she can't even stand looking at it. However, she is a huge fan of yakitori （焼き鳥）.

And just for interest's sake, this is the trailer for "Splendor in the Grass".